Stralyaday

We had a beautiful Australia Day in Melbourne. Twas 25°, nary a cloud in the sky and a perfect breeze blowing. I was driving along with the sunroof and all windows fully open soaking up the beauty of being Australian. The iPod blaring and me screeching along at the top of my lungs I was on the looking at lights to ensure no-one was suffering my best Kanye West, Lou Reed, Easy-E, or even Monty Burns ‘See my Vest’. To my utter amazement every single car had all their windows full up. It was too warm to be windows up, no air con so all these clowns are sitting in an absolutely freekin perfect climate; with their climate control on. On Australia Day facryinoutloud?

On Sunday I caught a great show 'Australia Day, My Way' hosted by the Australian comedian Akmal Seleh. He, like so many of us, was pondering what it meant to be Australian. One point Akmal made that I just loved was that Captain Cook discovered Australia despite the fact people were already living here? So by that logic Akmal’s Dad discovered Australia when they arrived from Egypt in 1974 writing in his journal ‘the natives are friendly’ – gold.

It seems at the moment if you’re not talking about the water crisis it’s what it is to be Australian? The term unAustralian has become my most disliked term in the political vernacular while the term multi-culturalism has been subverted by the term integration.

Later that Sunday I was watching the Australia Day awards on TEN where in a tacky piece of cross-promotion the TEN Australian Idol (who wasn’t actually Ozi when he won?) was sworn in by the PM before singing Tenterfield Saddler.

I don’t think I’d heard the oath before and I certainly have no memory of having taking it myself. That’s a bit peculiar isn’t it, immigrants have to agree but we get no say? So here it is:

As an Australian citizen,
* I affirm my loyalty to Australia and its people,
Whose democratic beliefs I share,
Whose rights and liberties I respect,
And whose laws I uphold and obey.
* Australian reaffirming start here

Shock horror; I got a little problem with that.
I’m totally loyal to Australia and its people (all of its people). I have unyielding democratic beliefs, not sure I share them with every Australia; no fan of the 2 party system. Whose rights and liberties I certainly do respect, just wish they hadn’t been eroded away. No biggies yet it’s really just semantics. Whose laws I uphold and obey, mmm. Obey I try as hard as the next bloke; uphold, not so sure. IE If I found a undocumented refugee child I would be jailed for contempt before I would give them up to be detained / jailed in the desert. So, nup, not upholding that. Illegal invasions of Iraq, well it’s hardly upholding a law more being complicit in the breaking of one, but no, not, sort of, upholding that.

This is my conclusion.
I love Australia, from the windswept coastline of the Great Ocean Road to the plains of central NSW, the unrelenting heat and fine red bull dust of the mid North to the humid rainforest of FNQ and everything in between.
I love Australians, not every single one of them, that's not possible. Barring politicians there is no group of people I dislike; just individuals. You can’t see a kangaroo, wombat, Sturt Desert Pea, giant magnetic ant hills, the opera house, the great barrier reef etc, etc, etc and not love Australia. Of course if driving around on perfect day with ones windows up all one would see is ones own small intestine, head up their arse tossers.

This government, previous and future governments, their leaders, members and policies are not Australia. It’s that silicone dust that gets into EVERYthing, the platypus, loving watching Cathy run but cringing when she speaks, roasts and hot puddings at Xmas in 40° heat, helping your mates in crisis and then cracking a tinny with them while BBQing the coat of arms. I love Australia.

After the Gurindji’s 8 year battle to get their land off Lord Vestey the indigenous rights activists Vincent Lingiari was too blind to see the paper work granting his people right to their ancestral land. Then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam picked up a handful of sand and poured it into Vincent’s. Great song by Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody “From little things big things grow” btw. A great gesture that sums up the Australia I love, it's the land, the flora, the fauna and all it's peoples.

I love Australia, every inch of it and every living thing that occupies every inch.
So I’m comfortable hating the war more and more everyday since the illegal invasion, love my Failure Accomplished bumper sticker, not guilty about rejoicing in the sacking of the Immigration Minister and am delighted to exercise my democratic right to question the value of being Australian if the government dobs its citizens into death sentences in Indonesia and leaves them to rot in Gitmo.

And I won’t be called unAustralian because of it.